Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one. ~ Brad Paisley

This blog is both an ending and a beginning. As 2013 ends, we are primed to look forward into what the future of 2014 might offer us. Let’s begin with a positive spirit of hope. It is today’s theme and a challenge to you throughout the rest of January.

I start with the hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes – at least one a week if not one a day. In order to make mistakes, you have to make new things, try new things, learn, live, push yourself, change yourself or change your world. You have to do things you’ve never done before, and most importantly, you’re doing something.

If you’re scared of doing it, do it anyway. Take the first steps to a new you, a new adventure, a new opportunity to learn new things, new lessons. I challenge you to fearlessly make your mistakes, start today, and continue on throughout the week, the month, the year and forever. I plan to heed my own advice as I move into the New Year.

So that’s my wish for you and me – for all of us. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze. Don’t stop. Don’t worry that it isn’t good enough or it isn’t perfect. Whatever it is – art, love, work, family or life.

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day. ~ Edith Lovejoy Pierce

“Chance favors those in motion. Events are brought together to form ‘happy accidents’ when you diffusely apply your energies in motions that are typically non-specific.” ~ James Austin

Captain Gerald Coffey U.S. Navy was a fighter pilot who was shot down and then imprisoned for more than five years during the Vietnam War. How he maintained his spirit of hope during those difficult times is a lesson for anyone who thinks he or she is confronted with a hopeless situation. His experiences while in captivity can be extrapolated and applied to the challenges each of us face today. It’s what one does with the unwanted lessons that are critical in determining its potential outcome or benefit. Consider for a moment what Coffey learned.

Lesson one is anxiety, embrace the uncertain and what makes us afraid. Examine the elements of uncertainty and fear to determine how real they truly are. What you likely learn in that examination will be that your perceptions were skewed. Allow lessons learned from your anxiety give you hope.

Secondly, fear stimulated by the risks inherent in new adventure often demand that we dive in to uncover new ideas and discover new relationships. Go on a new adventure, stretch yourself and find new hope in the lessons you learn from that adventure.

The third lesson is that of taking action. Take time to learn from your experience but don’t allow yourself to just keep it in your head. “Put your nickel down,” and make a plan of action to put your learning to use. Remember action does speak louder than words and we all learn best from taking action.

The fourth lesson Coffey imparts to us is that of adversity. When you or I are confronted with dissonance or dissent our integrity is tested. When it is, we are taught invaluable lessons about our integrity and perseverance. Learn about hope from the lesson learned in the challenge of your integrity.

“Keep going and the chances are you will stumble on to something when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.” ~ Charles Kettering

As we enter the last quarter of the year it is time to think about molding your business to run more efficiently, effectively and consistently in the new year. Don’t let your business evolve haphazardly and reactively. Proactively shape it or re-shape it to improve your business for smoother operations, consistent customer satisfaction and profitable results. You must turn any chaos, confusion, and anarchy you have experienced in the past into order and discipline. It is time to standardize and document your business.

Challenge your old beliefs about how your business should work. It is never too early to shape or too late to re-shape your business. It doesn’t matter if your business is 20 years old, 2 years old, 2 months old or on the drawing board, start shaping the company to run without your being woven into the very fabric of the business. Design it to run without your supplying all the effort and energy. You cannot control everything, you cannot control everyone. Let go! Start behaving like a strategic business leader/owner.

You do not want to create merely a job for yourself. The ultimate goal of creating a business is to sell it one day, at the highest premium possible, to your employees, family members, or an outside buyer. You deserve an acceptable return on your investment of time, talent, and treasure.

No matter what size, age or industry, every business should be prepared to be sold. Yours is no different. This “start with the end in mind” strategy should help focus you on building an effective business model that doesn’t have you at the center of its universe, relying on your presence, personality and perspiration for its success. Keep this thought in mind, you should not be the business and the business should not be you. This work-in-reverse approach not only maximizes your selling price, but also minimizes your hassles and headaches while you own and run the business.

As stated earlier, your goal is to design or re-design your business to work without you. Your business model should be sculpted in such a way that it can be easily replicated dozens of times in cities around the country or world, requiring only your vision, not your physical presence and exertion. Whether you ever expand or not, such an ambition should help you focus on building a systems-dependent (not leader/owner-dependent or people-dependent) business that generates repeatable performance and consistent results. You must help others get results. Without other people, you don’t run a business — you work a job.

What is an effective business system? It is simply an integrated web of separate processes, procedures and policies. A business system allows you to get consistent results through other people – tremendous leverage and freedom! The business system is your documented instruction manual for “this is what and how we do it” at our company. Some typical operating processes are as follows:

Your business with such fully identified and explained processes will allow your employees to deliver amazing consistency. Employee discretion is minimized. Such a system will also free you from having to touch every transaction, make every decision, answer every question and solve every problem. You can manage by exception! Such a carefully crafted enterprise will also give you breathing space to think and act like a strategic business leader/owner as well as the time to do personal activities that matter most to you.

Without such a business system in place, no one will want to pay a premium for your broken business. They would not want to buy a dysfunctional business that is solely dependent upon you for its day-to-day operations and survival. If it were obvious that you are a prisoner to your business, why would anyone want to buy into such a life sentence? They would not or would pay very little for such a systems-deficient business. Please grasp this; no one wants to buy a job, a series of headaches, or a leader/owner-centered and dependent business.

To maximize your company’s eventual selling price, realize that buyers want to acquire a smoothly running, money-generating machine. Buyers want to purchase a business system that runs on near autopilot, foolproof status. They want to buy a fully documented, organized business system that gets predictable results. They want an asset that has proven processes, predictable revenue streams, and strong growth potential. They want to buy a well-designed, hassle-free, cash flowing asset.

The more of a turnkey, self-managing, self-improving system you develop, the greater the value to a potential buyer. If your business runs well without your being there every day, it will be worth gold to others. And until the day you sell, don’t you want to own and manage the same type of well-designed, well-orchestrated business?

My son recently shared a passage from Brian G. Dyson, former President and CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises, during his speech at Georgia Tech’s 172nd Commencement Address. I have never seen or heard this passage before; however, given some current events in the lives of my family members, it truly resonated with me. I have decided to violate this month’s Sales theme and share the message with you. I hope it strikes and inspires you as much as it did me.

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – work, family, health, friends and spirit … and you’re keeping all of these in the air.

You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends and spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for Balance in your life.

How?

Don’t undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.

Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.

Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.

Don’t let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life.

Don’t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

Don’t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us to each together.

Don’t be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible to find time. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings!

Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going.

This month’s theme is Strategic Selling. Today’s blog is about mindset and how to make it strategic. Consider some of the following ideas and think about how you might put them into practice.

To be successful at getting your current customers to spend more with you, you must increase the “perceived value” of what you offer. You must become more strategic and educate your customers so that they desire your products/services more than they currently do.

To make this happen, you must first increase your “self-esteem.” You must believe that you are different, better, special and highly valuable to your customers, even worth a premium price. You must fight the “I am a commodity” mindset with every fiber of your mind, body and soul. The day you believe you are in a commodity industry or business is the day you begin to die. If you are similar to your competitors, you must break out from the pack. For example, create an added presence to what you are offering. Think about taking your performance to a higher level, maybe offer a money-back satisfaction guarantee, provide on-going education seminars for your customers or consider packaging/bundling other products or services with yours. Dare to be different and more valuable.

Here are some other ideas to increase the average purchase size and frequency of your sales:

Up-sell. If your client/customer can achieve better results and greater satisfaction, educate them on buying a higher-end product/service. Do a better job of assessing their needs, matching products/services that will give your customers the optimal buying experience and satisfaction. You will increase your profits and customer fulfillment. Auto dealers are masters at getting customers to buy car models with the higher-end feature packages (i.e. leather interior, better stereos, etc.)

Cross-sell. If you have multiple product or service lines, communicate and educate your customers/clients on the full spectrum of your solutions – services, products and expertise. Continually ascertain your customers’ challenges/problems and match up with the other solutions you offer. CPA firms, for example, cross-sell their audit clients on tax and consulting services. Banks cross-sell their checking customers on investments, mortgages, lines of credit, credit cards, etc.

Bundle better. Consider packaging complementary products/services together. If a customer is going to buy a gas grill, for example, offer a complete package of cooking utensils, mesquite wood chips, barbecue book, grill cover and apron. By saving your customer’s time and helping them to buy a more “complete solution,” you can probably charge a premium for this “barbecue in the box” offering. At the very least, they will have bought more than they otherwise would have – you made buying easy.

Offer volume or frequent buyer discounts. If you can get your customers to buy more and buy more frequently, reward them with incentives, discounts, extra level of services, etc. Since you have maximized your cash flow, be willing to reward customers with a few extra perks. Bookstores and airlines have “frequent buyer” programs. In addition, video stores and coffee stores give you a free serving when you buy a certain number of times.

Offer other products/services that will complement what you already sell. Ask the question, “Who else sells something that goes before, after or along with my customer’s purchase?” For example, if you sell computer products, consider selling “technical needs analysis” services on the front-end or installation and computer training services on the back-end. Be sure it makes economic sense to add such services to your business.

Communicate with your customers often and give them buying ideas/solutions via mail, phone, email, newsletters, in-store displays, etc. For example, as fall approaches, a hardware store owner may use direct mail and in-store displays to communicate the need to seal coat and fill in cracks in driveways. The owner can sell customers on the benefits of taking action by packaging all the supplies together (sealant, crack filler, broom, gloves, removal cleaner, “how to” booklet, etc.) and offering a single-solution price.

Conduct special events to educate your existing customers on additional service/product offerings. Do this in an informative manner and in a way that has “their best interests” at heart. Hold a “sneak preview” for your new products, services, models, etc. Hold exclusive events for your best customers. An upscale luxury auto dealer might hold a wine and cheese party with a musical quartet to unveil the newest car models.

Endorse other people’s products or services to your client list and get a cut of the action. For example, if you are an upscale jewelry store, consider offering elaborate vacation packages to your customers via an upscale travel agency. Mail offers to your customer database, endorse the travel agency and their offering, and receive a set percentage of any revenues generated. Instead of adding computer training to your computer store, form an alliance with a reputable training company and negotiate for a “cut of the action” for introducing/endorsing them to your customers via email, direct mail, telemarketing, etc. To maintain the goodwill of your customers, make sure you do your “due diligence” and introduce only high-trust, high-integrity and high-value organizations to your customer base.

Don’t attempt to do all of these at once. Simply consider one, two or even three of these practices, focus your energy and make a specific implementation plan. Give it time to work. Monitor and evaluate the process of how the approach evolves and make sure you don’t give up on them too early in the game. Don’t hesitate to email or call if you have questions. Good luck!

Experience has taught me that leaders who can articulate their vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion ultimately find the professional and personal satisfaction and success in life they are looking for. Clear visions have helped shape and propel impressive organizations, individuals and companies. For example, Fred Smith, founder of Federal Express, had a vision that packages could be delivered around the United States by the next morning. Disney wanted to make families smile. Coca Cola wanted its refreshing beverages within the reach of every person in the world. Microsoft wanted to create beneficial software that would compel people to have a computer on every desk at work, home and school.

Jonathan Swift said, “Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.” Don’t sell vision creation short. You must learn to understand, value, and appreciate the essential role of an exciting vision for a healthy life and career. Start thinking and planning more. Escape the tyranny of the urgent and create an exciting future, destiny and direction for yourself and your career. Effective visions also help lead leaders, athletes, musicians, businessmen, world leaders – keeping them motivated and challenged.

Let me state a warning. Fully realize that your followers must buy into you as a leader before they buy into your vision. They must believe and trust in you to believe and trust in your vision. You may need to do some repair work to establish yourself as a caring and competent leader before you start creating and selling your vision. You will need to connect with their hearts before connecting with their heads.

Allow yourself a month to create a new vision, or sharpen and update an existing one. Consider yourself the Chief Listening Officer during this early phase. You cannot build a vision on your own. For buy-in later, seek the input of others now. Include as many of your personal and professional stakeholders, family and advisers as possible in your process. Spend a week or two gathering ideas and input from these stakeholders about your direction, strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. If they do not participate in this creation phase, they will not want to participate in the vision implementation phase. In addition, do an environmental scan of yourself and your business by studying the impact of social, political, economic and industry trends. Understand your current and emerging competitors not only for your business but the quality of your life as well. On all fronts, do your homework.

After listening to and studying others, be certain to listen to your inner voice and gut. While others’ input is critical, know that the buck stops with you. You are ultimately responsible for the vision of your career and life. Your vision becomes your compass for direction, objectives, priorities, strategies, and tactics—it is that magical and that important.

Therefore, get away from the daily interruptions and go into your CEO Cave. This could be your home office, a coffee shop, a park, library or beach. Spend two to three days forming or crystallizing a picture of what you want your career and life to look like in one year, three years and five years. See things the way they can be. Dream the big dream; unleash your spirit. See in your heart what you truly want to create. A bold, daring, super-sized vision, even if only partially achieved, yields greater rewards than a small, wimpy vision fully achieved.

Remember, there are no rules while you create a desired future state. However, don’t deal in pure fantasy. There is a difference between a vision and a delusion. Stay somewhat grounded. You must see things the way they are now in order to visualize the way they can be. You must build from a foundation of realism, acknowledging your current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. However, once you gather the facts, let go and let her rip.

Grab hold of the future, bring it into the present and then go about creating it. Give yourself and those who follow you something to be proud of. Find a voice to express the common dreams, emotions, potential and needs of your team. Let your vision inspire, motivate, and galvanize your team. Small visions do not stir the soul. Give people a reason to follow, something to shoot for. Make the vision intoxicating—something that captures the imagination. Show your team the finish line in bright, Technicolor detail. Sell more to their hearts than to their heads. People change when their feelings change, not merely when their thoughts change. Powerful visions unite groups and take them to new heights and places.

In 1884 Mark Twain wrote “What is the most rigorous law of our being? Growth. No smallest atom of our moral, mental or physical structure can stand still a year… In other words, we change –and must change, constantly, and keep on changing as long as we live.”

I have observed far too often in my work that individuals, communities, institutions and businesses seem to fight change. Rather than accept change and what it can offer, too many, too often fight it and attempt to mold it to their particular persuasion. Change will happen no matter what one does. To think you can stop or impede it for any purpose is futile. Instead, I believe we should embrace change, find ways to understand it and grow as a result. Change is really at the core of all growth– personal, professional, organizational, you name it. To change is to grow. Growth will be more satisfying and more productive if you engage in a lifestyle that welcomes change. Engaging change benefits not only you, but your family and your organization.

Choose a platform for change and involve yourself. Do you want to grow professionally? What will it take to get to the next level of your career? Understand the requirements and make a plan to get yourself there. Is there a process or procedure at work that can be changed? Take the time to understand the benefits of change and the results growth will make. Again, make an educated, well researched and specific plan to implement changes that will benefit your organization and the individuals who work there. Present that plan and be sure to point out the costs, benefits and risks that the change will bring about.

Remember, the only place that change doesn’t occur is the graveyard. Change and growth are constant and inevitable, filled with ambiguity and uncertainty. Those who accept ambiguity and uncertainty with an eye on “how do I grow through all this” will come out as winners in the process. To be able to grow and change positively is to be able to conquer fear.

It is not that you must be free from the fear that comes with change. The moment you try to free yourself from apprehension or fear, you create a resistance against fear and change. Resistance, in any form, doesn’t stop the fear or the change. Rather than running away, controlling, suppressing or any other resistance, understand change. Watch it, learn about it and bring yourself to come in touch with it. As a result you will grow.

I started reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Benjamin Franklin. It is a wonderful read and it has given me the idea for my first blog of the New Year. The topic for this month is Personal Growth and Balance. We all seem to fall in line with New Year’s resolutions, especially if we overindulge during the holiday season. I know I fell off the wagon.

Franklin’s thinking and writing inspired me as I thought about his ruminations on the topic of virtue from a personal and professional perspective. I have always believed that one is very hard pressed to separate business from your personal life. One, I believe, always casts its light on the other. They are truly inseparable. Franklin’s writings serve as an inspiration for all to become more diligent, more focused, and thus make our actions more useful and our citizenship more virtuous.

I would love to hear what you think and if you agree with me that these virtues can be applied to how you live your personal and professional lives with a successful feeling of accomplishment.

Benjamin Franklin’s 13-Point Plan for Virtuous Living

Temperance: Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation.

Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.

Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.

Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.

Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.

Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.

Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

Justice: Wrong none, by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes or habitation.

Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; Never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.

Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

I challenge you to consider each virtue and, as you do, be mindful of what Franklin wrote, “mastering all of these at once was a task of more difficulty than I had imagined.” He suggested that a person should tackle them like “a person having a garden to weed, does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the beds at a time.”

Be kind to yourself. Remember change takes time. My “weed patches” for 2012 are Temperance, to lose weight; Order, to reduce professional and personal clutter; Justice, to be active in doing right by doing the right things and Industry, to focus my time on what is most important by living out the 80/20 Rule.

I will do and accomplish them one step at a time. How about you, what will you commit to and do?

As the year ends, I thought it might be worthwhile for each of us who are in a meaningful relationship to consider what it means to us and how we let our significant others know the importance they have in our lives. Too often we take for granted those who are there for us through thick and thin. The old song that waxes, “you only hurt the ones you love” is sadly too often, too true.

Coming and going, separate and together, straying and staying on course, relationships are truly a shared journey. It is a journey that demands direction, undivided attention, unconditional love and the ability to navigate tricky waters. In a perfect world our most important relationships would provide us a safe port in the storm, one of comfort and groundedness, the feeling one has of going home again. Steve Duck tells us we are at the helm of our relation-“ship”. To that end, we share those moments, decisions and choices that will influence how we communicate and how we will relate. I believe that when two in a relationship act as one, the impact on the good, bad, mundane and extraordinary times in our lives is more positive and strengthens the bonds we share.

Make a commitment with one another to find joy in each other. Commit to doing the hard work to get back on course if (when) you lose your way. And finally, set realistic, achievable goals for the next 12 months that will guide you in your relationship. Above all celebrate together when you reach those goals.

“There’s one sad truth in life I’ve found
While journeying east and west –
The only folks we really wound
Are those we love the best.
We flatter those we scarcely know,
We please the fleeting guest,
And deal full many a thoughtless blow
To those who love us best.”

–Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The holiday season is upon us and what better time to reflect upon the relationships in our personal and professional lives. Too often, it seems, we tend to take the most important people in our lives for granted just as Wilcox states in her very poignant poem. Furthermore, we lose focus on the fact that the quality of our relationships is part of the core quality in our lives. Step back for a moment and think about the inner circle relationships of your personal and professional worlds. How much positive time and energy do you spend with them? When was the last time you told those in your personal world you love them and appreciate the real and meaningful difference they make in supporting you and making you who you are? Would you be the person or professional you are today without these key relationships in your life? I think not, rather, in my case, I know not. It is abundantly clear to me that my successes, my ability to cope and overcome challenges and adversity, my growth in career and life and all that I have achieved would be for naught without those important people in my life.

In this time of Thanksgiving and Christmas Spirit, I challenge you to make it a priority to let all of those who are the human foundation on which you stand know what they mean to you and how they have impacted your life. Get face to face with them, your best clients, colleagues, friends and family. This month, talk to them as well as your mentors, advisors and employees. Let them know the difference they have made for you. Make certain you speak face to face, or at the very least via telephone or Skype. Do not, I repeat do not, rely on technology. Email, texting or instant messaging will NEVER replace the two way communication that is at the core of relationship building or sustaining.

I will close today’s blog with a quote from Anthony Robbins which I think sums up my thinking:

“Some of the biggest challenges in relationships come from the fact that most people enter a relationship in order to get something: they’re trying to find someone who’s going to make them feel good. In reality, the only way a relationship will last is if you see your relationship as a place that you go to give, and not a place that you go to take.” –Anthony Robbins

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